Martin Tobias out at Imperium

In an apparent bid to minimize pickup of the news, late in the afternoon Pacific time on Friday—the last business day before the Christmas holidays—high profile U.S. biodiesel maker Imperium Renewables announced CEO and Chairman Martin Tobias had been "transitioned" out of the company.

The company issued a terse statement saying the company's board had appointed founder and current president John Plaza as interim CEO and director Nancy Floyd, of investor Nth Power, as chair.

No reason was given.

The industry had been eagerly anticipating a $345 million Imperium initial public offering (IPO) since its filing in May. UBS Securities was to act as lead manager, and Jefferies, Piper Jaffray and Calyon Securities to co-manage.

Insiders suggested to the Cleantech Group that the move was directly related to improving the marketability of the company for its IPO.

"If he had been right for the IPO, they wouldn't have dumped him," one respected industry source said.

"This was supposed to be the biggest, most important IPO in cleantech in 2007. This is not smooth; you don't have the CEO step down on Christmas."

Before Imperium, Tobias was a venture partner at Ignition Partners, a Bellevue, WA venture capital firm. He achieved notoriety, and wealth, at the helm of Seattle digital media company Loudeye, guiding it to an IPO in March 2000. Previous to Loudeye, Tobias was a manager at Microsoft.

He joined Imperium in May 2005.

As of a May, 2007 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tobias owned 7.9 percent of Imperium.

Read the Cleantech Group's in-depth interview with Tobias: What's needed for a biodiesel boom.

Imperium opened its first biodiesel plant in Grays Harbor, Wash., in August, which can produce 100 million gallons a year (see Imperium gets big with biodiesel), the largest biodiesel facility in the U.S.

High profile investors include Technology Partners and Nth Power.

Others include Ardsley Partners, Attractor Investment Management, BlackRock Investment Management (UK), Capricorn Management, Ecofin, Robeco C.V., Silver Point Capital, Southport Energy Alternatives, Stark Biodiesel Investments and Treaty Oak Capital Management.

Upon raising $214 million in February of 2007, about double what the company was reportedly seeking, Ira Ehrenpreis of Technology Partners, lead investor, said Imperium was "ready to become a global leader." (see the Cleantech Group's Dust settles on large Imperium and ADM deals.)

Imperium has also been investing in development of next generation feedstocks like jatropha and algae (see Solazyme to supply algae oil to Imperium.)

Imperium says its process and technology innovations enable it to deliver improvements in product quality and throughput while significantly reducing capital and operating expenditures.

Read all of the Cleantech Group's recent coverage of Imperium Renewables here.

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